Russia # 2 in Billionaires (96) behind USA (425)

So where is the Russian Outrage? Perhaps there is some tipping point..

(The story below is from the Moscow Times)

Russia Ranks 2nd for Billionaires

Russia ranked second by the number of the world’s wealthiest people this year — leaving China just a notch behind — with tycoonAlisher Usmanovbecoming the country’s richest businessman for the first time after he placed his bets on the burgeoning high-tech industry.A total of 96 of the world’s 1,226 billionaires come from Russia, putting it in second place — up from third place last year — after the United States, which boasts 425 people whose fortune exceeds $1 billion, according to the annual billionaire ranking published by Forbes magazine Wednesday.

China has 95 billionaires this year, Forbes said.Russia has a historic reason to be among the world’s leaders by the number of billionaires because control over the biggest companies was consolidated in the hands of a few businessmen during the privatizations in the 1990s, said Vyacheslav Smolyaninov, a strategist atUralSibCapital.

“It’s a typical Russian phenomenon,” he said by telephone.The second reason, Smolyaninov said, is Russia’s reliance on raw materials. The country’s economy has yet to pick up, “but the downturn is over for sure and careful optimism exists,” he said.

Indeed, most Russians on the Forbes list own assets in the metals and mining or oil and gas industries